Friday night was the first of a two night, sold out run of Boy Harsher shows at Metro. Friday they headlined a three band bill and the venue filled to capacity very early in the evening, which put a lot of extra eyes on the opening acts.
Evanora Unlimited was the first band of the evening. While this artist is largely a solo act, he was joined by a live drummer for the performance. This band was pretty unique as they blended pop with electronics, and a unique vocal delivery. It was very experimental sounding and quite interesting. They played a half hour set and the audience seemed to enjoy it.
Choir Boy was next. They hail from Salt Lake City. This band played dreamy pop/synthpop music that was mid tempo. Their vocalist was a real crooner, which totally fits with the name Choir Boy. He had a super melodic voice and the music Choir Boy played was downright soothing. It really wasn’t what you’d expect at all and the crooning really seemed like a major driving factor in the song structures. Their thirty minute set was rather enjoyable, and would also be suitable for wearing a ship captain hat to while dancing.
A scan of the beyond sold out crowd as Boy Harsher took the stage was a really refreshing site at just how diverse the audience is. There were people of all walks of life and a vast age range, seemingly evenly divided amongst it all. I haven’t seen anything like it in quite some time and it was wonderful to see. All these people shared a love and excitement for Boy Harsher, a band that has really blown up over the last couple of years. Nine years earlier, they played early in the evening at a Cold Waves Festival here at Metro and seemed very. nervous while doing so, and now here they were selling out a weekend of shows at the same venue, and being total masters of their craft and commanding that stage.
Speaking of the stage, the setup was really impressive with a couple of large screens, another small monitor, and an array of cool lighting surrounding it all. It transformed the Metro’s stage into a futuristic looking nightclub with an island of musical technology in the middle of it all. The musical duo took the stage to a haunting intro and a massive roar of applause from the audience as they slowly transitioned into “Ronny” which is the opening track on their brand new album, Get Mean. Augustus was like a chef in a high end kitchen manipulating all the electronics, keyboard, and even a guitar at times, while lead singer, Jae had the entire audience gazing at her as she’d hypnotically dance around her half of the stage as she sang in that unique, wonderful voice of hers. It’s like she casts a spell on you while you are listening, and that spell also commanded pretty much the entire audience to dance, and dance they did!
The band didn’t spend much time between songs, but occasionally Jae would talk to the audience and seemed genuinely moved by the huge turnout. They kept the dance party going nearly nonstop by playing “Electric” right after “Ronny”, then another off the new album, “Coming Home”. Everything sounded amazing, and the live sound in that room was absolutely perfect, you could hear and feel everything so clearly and the beats hit you right in the soul.
The setlist was heavy on the new album material, and it’s a fantastic album so hearing most of it in a live setting was a real joy. They sprinkled in a few songs from past releases in there from time to time as well, and ended the main set with “Modulations” from their first EP! They walked off stage for just a couple of minutes before coming back out for a two song encore that ended the evening with their most popular song, “Pain”, that had the entire audience dancing like mad!
Boy Harsher has really grown into this amazing and special electronic dance band that appeals to such a vast audience. A band like this is a unicorn in this world and should be cherished. This is absolutely a must-see act and I predict they’ll be selling out shows constantly on this tour, and future ones as well. Put them on the top of your must-see list!
